Knitting method and apparatus



April 1, 1953 w. A. DOSTMANN KNITTING METHOD AND APPARATUS 2SHEETS-SHEET 1 Filed NOV. 21, 1950 INVENTOR .Wnum A.Dosmnum HISATTORIVEV April 1953 w. A. DOSTMANN 2,635,442

KNITTING METHOD AND APPARATUS Filed NOV. 21, 1950 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 4 2 3,ea @3. 4Q, 2 //4 o 9 J3 12 26 F i. I 6 r 04 0 6 14 24 3/ J8 2 8 9 30INVENTOR.

WILLIAM A. DOSTMANN BY HIS ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 21, 1953 KNITTINGMETHOD AND APPARATUS William A. Dostmann, Berlin, N. J., assignor toWilliam M. Langer and William M. Langer, J r.,

Berlin, N. J.

Application November 21, 1950, Serial No. 196,885

7 Claims.

, My invention is an improved method of and apparatus for knittingselvaged weft fabric in which certain of the courses of loops contain agreater number of yarns than subsequent courses of loops. and theleading objects of my invention are to obviate the impairment of fabricsand the retardation of production that have hitherto been incident tothe reduction in the number of yarns used in certain courses of afabric, and particularly full-fashioned hosiery blanks made on machineshaving a large number of knitting heads each having a blank of alignedneedles, such as the Cotton type full-fashioned knitting machines.

In the knitting of full-fashioned hosiery blanks on standard types offull-fashioned knitting machines having a series of banks of en massemovable bearded needles, single or multiple yarns are laid along eachbank of needles by a set of yarn carries complementary to the bank ofneedles and individually reciprocable along the beard side thereof. Therespective carriers are mounted on carrier rods which may be selectivelyconnected with friction boxes to place a given group of carriers inaction and which when disconnected from the friction boxes may beshifted. longitudinally to move the yarn carriers connected therewithlaterally away from the respective knitting heads so that they are outof the way of the yarn carriers which are being reciprocated to layyarns in a desired sequence and grouping along the needle banks.

Ordinarily one of the yarns fed by a main carrier is laid insubstantially all the courses of a hosiery blank, and certain of thecourse are reinforced by the laying of one or more auxiliary yarns so toform foot reinforcements and clocks or borders. The auxiliary yarns maybe laid wholly or partly across the Width of a course and are knittedsimultaneously With the knitting of the main yarn in such course.

When it is desired to provide a hosiery blank having heel and solesplicings having a border or other ornamental clock, and a reinforcedtoe, it is usual, in knitting the heel and foot section, to have inaction a carrier for laying the main yarn, a pair of carriers for layingtwo supplementary yarns forming heel and sole reinforcements adjacent tothe opposite selvages of the blank, and two additional carriers forlaying two supplementary yarns for forming clocks or borders along orspaced from the respective heel and sole reinforcements. The reinforcedtoe is, however. usually knitted from the main yarn and one only of thesupplementary yarns, and this necessitates shifting three of thesupplementary yarn carriers previously in action laterally away fromeach knitting head, thereby leaving leads extending from each suchdisplaced carrier to the row or loops hanging on the needles. If theloops are knitted off the needles with the leads extending along theneedle bank, the leads tend to become entangled with needles of the bankduring their upand-down-in-and-out motions, thereby pulling or breakingthe yarns on the needles. On the other hand the stoppage of the machinewhile all the leads are out between the selvages and carriers results inconsiderable loss of production. In accordance with my invention, assoon as the leads are laid by the lateral shifting of the carriers takenout of action they are simultaneously pulled forward in the form of abight or loop extending away from the needle bank, and knitting may beimmediately resumed and continued while the leads are so held and untilthey can be conveniently severed without any necessity for stoppage ofthe knitting machine.

The leads are simultaneously drawn away from the respective needle banksand held as bights or loops spaced therefrom by a series of hooks, whichare mounted on slides 01' carriages movable on tracks transverse to theneedle banks, and such slides or carriages are all connected with ashaft whose rotation simultaneously advances or re-.

tracts all of the slides with the hooks thereon. The slides and hooksare preferably advanced their maximum distance and seated in recesses inthe press face of the sinker bed of the machine before the carriers areshifted out of action. Hence when the carriers are shifted laterally outof action the supplementary yarns fed thereby are laid in front of thehooks and the retraction of the hooks simultaneously draws the leadsinto bights extending outward from any osition taken by the needles intheir up-and-down-in-and-out movement in casting off the old andknitting a new course of loops.

The principles of my invention, and the best mode in which I havecontemplated applying such principles will more fully appear from thefollowing description and the accompanying drawings in illustrationthereof.

In the drawings, Fig. l is a diagrammatic, fragmentary, perspective viewof one of the knitting heads and adjacent parts of a full-fashionedhosiery knitting machine of the Cotton type having my improvementsapplied thereto; Fig. 2 is an enlarged diagrammatic, fragmentaryperspective view illustrating one end of the knitting head therein; Fig.3 is an irregular transverse sectional view taken along the line 3-3 ofFig, 4; Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the knitting machine head andadjacent members shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3; Fig. is a side elevation ofa detail taken approximately on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4; and Fig. 6 is abottom plan view of the detail shown in Fig. 5 and looking approximatelyin the direction of the line 6-6 thereof.

In the drawings there is illustrated a fragmentary portion of a usualtype of full-fashioned hosiery knitting machine having the usual needlebar I carrying a bank of bearded needles 2. Carriers 3, 4, 5, 6 and I ormore, are reciprocable when their carrier rods are connected with usualfriction boxes to lay yarns 3a, 4a, 5a, Ba, la or more along all or anydesired number of the needles 2. When the carrier rods are disconnectedfrom the friction boxes they may be shifted rectilinearly to place thecarriers connected therewith respectively at the sides of the knittinghead.

As the yarns are laid they are kinked by the sinkers- 8 and dividers 9before being drawn through a previous course of loops by the movementsof the needle bar I which is rocked inand-out and moved. up-and-down inthe usual manner of knitting. The cast-offs loops are received by theusual knock-over bits carried by the pivoted bed ID.

A take-up roll I l is journalled in the frame of the machine and isconnected by straps l2 with a. welt rod I3 over which the welt A of thestocking being knit is looped. The rotation of the take-up roll ll drawsthe welt rod [3 and fabric connected therewith away from the bank ofneedles as the fabric is knit.

Brackets l4 and I5, projecting upwardly from slides or carriages i6 andI1 reciprocable on the rails or slideways l8 and 19 provide seats inwhich a welt bar (not shown) of an automatic welt turner may be seatedand moved outward during the formation of the welt section. By rockingthe journalled shaft 20 to which the slides are connected by the pivotedlinks 2|, 2!, 22 and 23, the carriages l6 and I! may be advanced towardthe needle bank after the welt bar has been removed.

In accordance with my invention, hooks 24 and 25 are connected with therespective slides l8 and IT and are movable thereby forwardly intorecesses 26 and 21 in the press face of the sinker bed 28, and may beretracted therefrom by the retraction of the slides so as to clear anypossible position occupied by the needles 2 in theirup-and-down-in-and-out movements.

The hooks 24 and 25 preferably consist of wire bent at right angles toprovide vertical legs eng'ageable in the recesses 26 and 21 andhorizontal legs adjustably secured by set screws 29 in the bosses 29 ofplates 30 secured by screws 3| to the bottom of the slides 16 and Il.

In the drawing there is shown a stocking knitted down to the beginningof the reinforced toe and in which the yarn 3a has been laid in the legand foot, the supplementary yarns 4a and So have been laid along anumber of needles at the opposite sldes of the bank of needles 2 as toform the heel and sole reinforcements B, B and C, C, and the yarns 6aand la have been respectively laid along a few needles at the oppositesides of the bank so as to form the clock borders D, D.

Normally the slides l6 and ll are positioned at the inner ends of therails 18 and IS with the vertical arms of the hooks 24, 25 seated in therecesses 26, 2! in the press face of the'sinker head 28, and are movedforward at the beginning of a welt or at any time it is necessary todraw yarn ends away from the needles, pursuant to my invention. Forexample, upon completion of the last course which contains all of theyarns 3a, 4a, 5a, 6a, la and while the loops formed thereby are hangingon the needles, the rods on which the carriers 5, 6, I are mounted aredisconnected from the friction boxes and shifted so as to position thecarriers 5, 6, l at the sides of the knitting heads beyond the recesses26 and 21 and spaced from the bank of needles. Such shifting lays theleads of the yarns 5a, 6a and la in front of the hooks 24 and 25respectively. The

shaft 20 is then rocked to move the slides l6 and I! forward and causethe hooks 24 and 25 to leave the recesses 26 and 21 and engage the leadsof the yarns, 5a, 6a, 1a and bend them into bights or loops lying wellforward of any possible position where they might be engaged by needles.Knitting may be immediately resumed and continued while the leads of theyarns 5a, 6a and la are held by the hooks 24 and 25 and such leads maythen be cut at convenience.

It will be understood that each knitting head of a multisection machineis provided with a pair of hooks and operating means therefor as abovedescribed and that all of the hooks are connected through slides andlinks as above described with the shaft 20, which extends the length ofthe machine so that the withdrawal of the leads may be effectedsimultaneously at all the knitting heads.

While my method is most effectively practiced by the utilization of themechanism above described, it is possible to otherwise practice mymethod of weft knitting a selvaged fabric having reinforced areas on abank of aligned needles by laying a plurality of yarns selectively alongselected needles, knitting a course of loops therefrom, moving leads ofcertain of the yarns included in the course laterally away from theedges of the fabric or from the edges of the reinforced areas thereof,bending such leads into loops projecting outward away from the bank ofneedles and in the direction of take-up of the fabric, and immediatelyknitting further courses of the fabric from the remaining yarns whilethe looped leads are bent as loops which provide sufficient slack topermit considerable movement of the course to which the leads areconnected toward the take-up roll without imposing any stress on theloops of such course. The loops formed in the leads may be sufficientlylarge to provide slack allowing sufiicient take-up movement of thecourse to which the leads are connected to permit the completion of thetoe of the stocking so that these leads, as well as the yarns 3a and 4a,may be out after the knitting of the stocking blank has been completed,or at any convenient time theretofore.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. In a knitting machine, the combination with a bank of knittingneedles, yarn carriers movable along said needles for selectively layinga plurality of yarns along needles aforesaid, said yarn carriers beingdisplaceable beyond the ends of said bank of needles, of hooks movablebetween the respective ends of said bank of needles and yarn carriersdisplaced therefrom, and means for simultaneously moving said hooksoutwardly in a direction normal to the bank of needles to loop leads ofyarn between said needles and displaced carriers.

2. In a knitting machine. the combination with a bank of needles, asinker bed adjacent to said bank of needles, sinkers movable in said bedand between said needles, yarn carriers movable along said needles andsinkers to lay yarns selectively along needles aforesaid, said yarncarriers being displaceable beyond the ends of said bank of needles,hooks movable into juxtaposition to and away from said sinker bedbetween the last sinkers therein and displaced yarn carriers aforesaid,and means for moving said hooks in a substantially horizontal planetoward and away from the edge of said sinker bed.

3. In a knitting machine, the combination with a bank of needles, asinker :bed adjacent to said needles, sinkers movable in said bed andbetween said needles, said bed having recesses spaced from said sinkers,yarn carriers movable along said needles and sinkers to feed a pluralityof yarns selectively to needles aforesaid, said yarn carriers beingdisplaceable beyond the ends of said bank of needles, hooks movabletoward and from said sinker bed and into the recesses therein, and meansfor moving said hooks toward and from said sinker bed.

4. In a knitting machine, the combination of a bank of needles, a sinkerbed adjacent to said bank of needles, sinkers movable in said bed andbetween said needles, yarn carriers movable along said needles forlaying multiple yarns selectively along needles aforesaid, said yarncarriers being displaceable beyond the ends of said bank of needles,rails extending transversely to said bank of needles, carriagesreciprocable on said rails transversely to the length of said bank ofneedles, hooks carried by said carriages and movable thereby intojuxtaposition to said sinker bed between the respective ends of theneedle bank and yarn carriers displaced beyond the ends thereof, arocking shaft, and links pivotally connecting said carriages with saidrocking shaft to reciprocate said carriages.

5. In a knitting machine, a plurality of knitting heads each having abank of needles and carriers movable along the respective banks forselectively laying yarns along certain needles of each bank, saidcarriers being displaceable beyond the ends of the respective banks ofneedles with which they are respectively associated, a hook movabletoward and from the forward edge of each head and transversely to eachneedle bank and between an end thereof and a yarn carrier displacedbeyond such end, and means for reciprocating said hooks in substantiallyparallel paths and substantially simultaneously.

6. A method of weft knitting a selvaged fabric having reinforced areason a bank of aligned needles which comprises laying a plurality of yarnsselectively along selected needles of said bank and knitting a course ofloops therefrom, moving leads of certain yarns of said course laterallyaway from the edges of said fabric, bending said leads into loopsprojecting outward away from said bank of needles and out of the pathsthereof, and knitting further courses of said fabric while said leadsare bent as loops aforesaid.

7. A method of weft knitting a selvaged fabric having reinforced areason a bank of aligned needles which comprises laying a plurality of yarnsselectively along selected needles of said bank, some of said yarnsbeing laid only along needles inward from the selvage, knitting a courseof loops from said plurality of yarns, moving leads of the yarns laidalong said inward needles only over the portion of the fabric betweensuch needles and the selvage and away from such selvage, bending saidleads into bights partly overlying said fabric and extending outwardfrom said bank of needles, and knitting further courses from other ofsaid first named yarns while said leads are bent as bights as aforesaid.

WILLIAM A. DOSTMANN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 2,100,345 Miller Nov. 30, 1937 2,201,092 Hug May 14, 19402,376,267 Moyer May 15, 1945 2,432,110 Lambach Dec. 9, 19 1'? 2,443,813Cooper June 22, 1948

